Hello,
Here's a relevant US article which may be of interest. It contains
further evidence that the feminist-oriented US education system has been
slow in making the most of the talent and intelligence of boys.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20061013/cm_usatoday/educatorsslowtowiseuptothegenderproblem;_ylt=AittCKn2cTyeebgwRB7jtIms0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3YWFzYnA2BHNlYwM3NDI-
Cheers,
Vincent Patrick
Educators slow to wise up to the gender problem
-----------------------------------------------
Last month, Melissa Roderick, a University of Chicago professor and
leading authority on school reform, arrived at a startling conclusion:
The traditional measurements of the nation's progress in improving
education, which use race and income as markers, are flawed.
Why? Because boys and girls coming from the same race, families,
incomes, neighborhoods and schools are turning out very differently. The
girls are doing better.
Nearly half of all boys graduate from Chicago Public Schools with less
than a 2.0 average, compared with a fourth of the girls. Only 8% of the
system's African-American boys have a 3.0 average - a key indicator of
the ability to complete college - compared with 18% of the girls.
The numbers are jarring, which explains Roderick's revelation that
Chicago schools won't improve without strategies that focus on boys'
achievement - the same kinds of strategies used so successfully to boost
math and science skills among girls.
Roderick is on to something important. Some researchers contend the
educational gender gap is strictly a function of race and class. Those
are undoubtedly factors, particularly for boys from poor, single-parent
families growing up without father figures.
But anyone thinking gender issues affect only minorities or the poor
needs to go 15 miles from downtown Chicago to the Wilmette public
schools, one of the nation's wealthiest and most successful districts.
There, educators discovered that targeting boys - who were badly
trailing the girls in achievement - was the smartest strategy for
boosting overall student performance.
This school year, Wilmette boosted its hiring of male teachers and
trained teachers in classroom strategies that benefit boys.
Other educators are beginning to wake up to the gender problem. What's
needed is a national task force, put together by Education Secretary
Margaret Spellings, that would consider doing for boys what was done for
girls a decade ago.
In addition to being a matter of fairness, a shift to boy-oriented
policies has the potential to produce other gains:
•Raise parents' and teachers' awareness. Parents with struggling boys
often are told not to worry because boys are slow to pick up reading
skills and math is their strong point. That conventional wisdom is
outdated. Many boys don't catch up in reading, and they don't always do
better in math.
This month, a Massachusetts education think tank, the Rennie Center,
reported that 41% of girls in the state are proficient or better in
reading, compared with 29% of boys.
Paul Reville, who runs the center, said the biggest surprise was finding
that girls outperform boys in math as well. That shouldn't be a
surprise: Reading is a key link to understanding math and science.
• Boost college graduations. Lagging literacy skills result in many boys
ending up unprepared for college, which in turn explains declining
percentages of men on campus.
Currently, 133 women graduate from college for every 100 men.
If boys can't make it through high school, they certainly can't make it
through college. For better or worse, in today's information-based
economy, college has become the new high school.
What's striking about the gender gaps is that most school districts do
little or nothing about them. In his survey of Massachusetts schools,
Reville kept expecting to find a school carrying out reforms that target
boys, as Wilmette did. He never found one.
Reville, like Roderick, is an education outsider. Until the insiders -
teachers, principals and superintendents - recognize the problem, too
many boys will continue to flounder.
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